Theoretical works have predicted that single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have potential applications in high-frequency electronics. Until now, however, intensive study has been obstructed by the very weak signals of SWNTs in the microwave regime. Therefore, fabrication of aligned arrays of SWNTs with very high density is ultimately important to microwave applications of SWNTs. Basic nanotube transistor operations, however, has been evidenced in radio frequency analog electronics.
Fabricating a plurality of patterned SWNTs (or SWNT arrays) using conventional techniques tends not to result in very high density SWNTs and also results in imperfect array alignment, i.e., non-parallel. Moreover, conventional techniques used to fabricate arrays of SWNTs by patterning catalysts tend to be difficult to use and are typically unusable on a wafer scale.